Bridging through 10 and 20 – An online game!

A while back I came across a fun game – Bridging Shuttle – that is aimed at students in grades 1-3. The game is intended to show, through the use of a space shuttle’s flight path, how mathematicians “bridge” through friendly numbers like 10, 20, 50 and 100 while adding. When we talk to students about “making ten and some more” from two addends, we are “bridging” through ten. It involves, of course, breaking numbers up into parts and putting them back together again!

The image below shows the screen for the shuttle’s “flight path” called 8 + 4. Students begin at 8, type in the number that gets them to the next friendly number (2) and then hit the red button to proceed to the satellite. Next they type the number to take them the rest of the way – (2 again) and press the next red button to land.

Consider modeling the action of the space shuttle with ten frames with your students to consolidate the process… This game uses only digits and so is more abstract.

Welcome!

I am Carole Fullerton, an independent consultant working with teachers around British Columbia (and beyond!) in the area of numeracy. I work with districts, whole school staffs, with school-based learning teams, in classrooms and with parents in an effort to promote mathematical thinking.